In this book, we will introduce you to the interesting subjects of communication and collaboration. You will see the present approaches and forms of information processing and what it means to stay connected. We will also look into future technological developments.
Before we delve deep into the technologies, software solutions, and innovative communication capabilities, let me first ask you several questions:
Have you ever considered how important communication is in your daily life?
How much do you communicate every day, or how many people do you converse with daily on various issues?
Is this exchange of information important and necessary?
Communication is not something which we consciously think about in most situations. However, let me urge you to start observing how often you communicate daily with others and particularly the ways and means you do this. I think you can then agree that communication and targeted exchange of information are basic components and a foundation of our lives. Living creatures communicate with one another via some form of tool or other means. In the prehistoric era, humankind communicated information using images, characters, sounds, and later music from the sender to the receiver. However, the uniqueness of this information was not always clearly given and messages communicated by this means did not always reach the intended recipient.
Looking into the past, the origin of cooperation was to create success, whether in career opportunities or social recognition to secure survival for his fellow men and himself.
In the course of time and history, many possibilities derived from technical-evolutionary ideas have been developed for communication, cooperation, and exchange of information over many centuries. Ultimately it is the human drive to be successful and efficient in communicating, processing, and transmitting information that drives this process.
Let us look back at the technological developments that have taken place at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time, our "modern" information exchange and communication by telegraphy (1837, Samuel Morse F. B.) or telephony (1876, Alexander Graham Bell) were in their infant stages. Telephones were innovative pieces of equipment that had to be integrated into companies or offices in order to process information more efficiently and rapidly without having to go through an interconnecting party. These developments were tools of communication which eventually seeded the development of today's modern communication— an integrated solution for communication and collaboration, in short, unified communications/unified messaging.